


Where There is Magic...

by nerdzeword



Series: Princess Movies, But Make it Gay [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: F/M, Fluff, I know i marked this as g, M/M, Minor Character Death, Princess and the Pauper AU, You heard me, You're Welcome, aftg spring exchange, also fixed the plot holes, barbie movie au, but like for your twin brother?, but there is a tiiiiny bit of murder, flower shop au, i added magic, most of it is offscreen anyway, sorta - Freeform, twinyards, what's it called if it's a meet cute, which i guess only counts if you consider moriyamas people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:48:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,812
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24584839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdzeword/pseuds/nerdzeword
Summary: Andrew and Aaron have only just met, but it's up to them to stop a plot that could ruin their lives - and the lives of their entire country - forever.Feat.Magic, disguises, flowers and a dash of kidnapping for taste.
Relationships: Aaron Minyard & Andrew Minyard, Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: Princess Movies, But Make it Gay [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1999474
Comments: 10
Kudos: 74
Collections: AFTG Exchange Spring 2020





	Where There is Magic...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ghostsgf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostsgf/gifts).



> Much thanks to Madison who had to beta this unreasonably late. And to the rest of the group chat, who postponed the sleep game to play the title game with me. I love you all.
> 
> Happy Spring Exchange!  
> (ps. I mayyyy have stretched your prompts a bit but I hope you like anyway!)

Long ago, and far away, in a little village in the kingdom of Palmetto, two babies were born at the same time. Which would have been incredible, were they not twins. The twins were the sons of the queen, and the new rightful heirs to the throne. Tilda was not a particularly good queen, nor was she bad. She was simply a ruler who was adequate. Her adequacy was under normal circumstances, not a big deal. She could rule her country and keep her people alive without too much trouble. The same could not be said for her own sons. 

At the time of her sons’ births, Tilda had a trusted advisor by the name of Tetsuji. Now Tetsuji was quite obviously a shady character, but following the death of Tilda’s husband, and the birth of her children, Tilda was not in a very emotionally stable position, and thus was not the best judge of character. Tetsuji was a distant relative of the Moriyama family, who had been slowly gaining control of the continent for years. He knew that, should both boys come of age, his coup of Palmetto would become significantly harder. So he tasked a young maid with the terrible task of removing one of the children. 

Like any other reasonable person in a position with no power to speak of, Cass Spear followed Tetsuji’s orders to “Get rid of him!” by taking the baby down to the nearby village where she lived and raised the boy as her own. In order to better take care of her new child, she quit her job at the palace, and instead worked as a gardener for a small flower shop, cultivating skills she would later pass onto her new son.

Tilda, distraught by the mysterious death of her youngest son, fell into a state of deep depression, turning to opiates to fill the void left by the untimely deaths of all of her family members. Her remaining son, Aaron was banned from leaving the palace, and her adequate ruling slowly spiraled into less-than-adequate ruling and eventually downright-terrible ruling. And so the boys grew, connected, but apart. 

Aaron loved his mother dearly, but as he grew up he found himself avoiding her more often than not. His favorite method of avoiding his mother was by instead bothering his best friend, Katelyn, into telling him about what she had learned each day. Katelyn was the daughter of the royal tutor, Wymack, and though Wymack could only teach Aaron the royalty approved courses, Katelyn had no such restrictions, and it was through her that Aaron learned about poetry, science and medicine. Aaron had always known that he would one day become king, and was determined to become a better ruler than his mother. He was of the opinion that the best way to do so was to learn everything there was to learn, and Katelyn was his more than willing accomplice in this task. 

  
  


Andrew grew up in the village as a lowly pauper, unaware that his life could have been much, much different. He grew up learning about plants and baking and all of the little magics that made life just a tiny bit easier to live in. The small country of Palmetto had once been well known for its magic, but over the years, the innate magic that had once filled both the land and the people, had been dwindling to next to nothing. Or rather, it had been dwindling for everyone except for Andrew, who was constantly causing mishaps with his overabundance of magic. 

Despite the surplus of magical mishaps however, Andrew was content with his life, up until the fateful day that his beloved mother died in a carriage accident leaving Andrew indentured to her former employer at the flower shop in the village. It would not have been so bad a fate, were it not for the fact that his indentured servitude was to Seth, who had recently inherited the shop from his own father, and liked to lord his power over Andrew’s head. Andrew actually rather liked working with flowers, he could make them bloom easily with his magic. He would be loath to admit it, but he actually even liked Nicky, the over exuberant man who worked the front counters while Andrew worked his magic on the bouquets. 

As much as he liked working with the flowers, Andrew wanted to be  _ free  _ more. He hated being tied to this tiny village, in a country that hadn’t even  _ seen _ its ruler for nearly twenty years. He wanted to go places, to do things, to see the _ world.  _

“Andrew! I said I wanted yellow daffodils! Get it right!”

He hoped Seth fell on a rosebush.

  
  


Aaron hated Riko with a fiery passion. He hadn’t liked his mother’s previous advisor, Tetsuji either, but at least  _ he  _ hadn’t been a complete idiot. Aaron didn’t think he would ever find himself missing the older advisor when he had been called back to his own country, but here he was. What really bothered Aaron though, was the fact that Riko was the same age as him - if infinitely less mature - and his mother still listened to his ‘advice,’ when Aaron himself had been trying to get his mother to listen to his ideas for  _ years.  _

And now there was this. 

“What.”

“You will be marrying King Nathaniel of Baltimore.” Aaron’s first instinct was to turn his glare on Riko. This was not a solution his mother would have come to without outside help. To his surprise however, Riko looked just as disgusted by this solution as Aaron did. 

“Why?” Aaron turned back to his mother, and tried to keep his voice from falling into a whine. 

“Our resources are dwindling. Our people’s lives will depend on this merger. King Nathaniel is very rich, and his wealth can be just the thing that saves our people.” Aaron stared at her. 

“The magic in the mines is dwindling, yes,” Aaron had a lot of opinions about mining magic in the first place, but now was not the time to bring up those concerns. “But surely we have other resources to fall back on? Magic can’t be our only trade.” 

“It is. No more arguments Aaron Michael. You will marry King Nathaniel in a week’s time.”

“A week! Your majesty, are you sure-” It was Riko who spoke up that time. Aaron eyed him carefully. Something was going on here, he just couldn’t figure out what. He would have to get to the bottom of it, and he didn’t have a lot of time to do so.

  
  


Neil was an annoyance, and Andrew couldn’t stand him. He was bossy, obnoxious, and couldn’t tell a daisy from a chrysanthemum. He was also disgustingly attractive, and Andrew would have liked nothing more than to drag him into the shop’s backroom, press him up against the shelving and do unspeakable things to his mouth. Instead he was forced to follow along as Neil dragged him around town and got him into trouble with all of the locals who had been around to witness all of Andrew’s magic mishaps as a child, and fully expected him to continue the trend. 

Andrew hated him.

He hated even more that he had never in his life enjoyed himself as much as he did when he was with Neil. He had the tenacity of a bad song, worming his way into Andrew’s life, and refusing to leave his head. 

“Don’t you have work to do, Mr. page boy?” 

“No one ever does anything of note in the palace. You’re way more interesting.”

“Well go find someone else to bother. Nicky and I have to finish eight dozen bouquets before the royal wedding next saturday, which means I’m going to have to grow more stupid white roses, because  _ of course _ royalty can’t be bothered to pay attention to which flowers are actually in season,” Andrew complained.

“Wow. Tell me how you really feel,” Neil responded dryly.

“I hate you.” Andrew threw a stem clipping at him without looking up from his flower spread. 

“You know, every time you say that, I believe you a little less.”

“Go away,” Andrew growled at him, hunkering over his flowers a bit more. He just knew that if he turned around, Neil would know that he wanted the exact opposite of his words. Neil was infuriatingly adept at reading his moods. 

Neil laughed and stood up straight. “Fine. But I don’t know when I’ll be back around. The castle is a madhouse right now.”

“I thought you said it was boring,” Andrew finally looked up at him. 

Neil grinned at him cheekily. “I lied. I just wanted to see you before I get dragged into a bunch of boring meetings and fittings.” Andrew really needed him to stop saying things like that, and especially not with such an earnest look on his face. Neil had been stopping by near daily for the past four months and Andrew would never admit it, but he had gotten used to his presence. He was never going to tell Neil that though. 

“You’re blocking my light idiot.”

  
  


Aaron thought he should be a bit more alarmed by Riko’s weird discomfort with Aaron’s betrothal to King Nathaniel, but as it served his purposes, he wasn’t all that inclined to investigate further. Besides, if the King was anywhere near as weird as his ambassador, Neil, he didn’t want anything to do with him. What kind of ambassador spent all day in the city instead of the palace anyway? It was weird. He would never admit that he was a bit jealous of Neil. 

The palace was as much Aaron’s prison as it was his home. He wanted to be a good king to his people one day, but there was no way he would be able to do that if he didn’t know anything about his people. How were they handling the decline of magic? Aaron had never really felt the loss of his magic since he’d never had any in the first place, but surely there were others who had once relied on it? Aaron didn’t know, because he had never had the chance to meet them. 

He hated that some stupid royal ambassador knew more about the every day lives of his people than he did.

“Psst! Aaron!” Katelyn whisper yelled from around the corner as he walked towards the library. He turned towards her, confused. Katelyn hadn’t needed to hide her presence from anyone in the castle since they were ten years old. She belonged here just as much as anyone else on the staff. More so, as far as Aaron was concerned. 

“Kate? What?” She dragged him into an alcove and Aaron was annoyed to discover that the dumbass ambassador was there as well. He ignored the rolling in his gut at the sight of Katelyn pressed against his side.

“Shh! Neil found a way for us to get out of the castle without being seen!”

“Is it the same way you’ve been sneaking off every day?” Aaron asked, a bit disappointed that his voice came out sounding more curious than scathing as he’d intended.

“Yup! Do you want to know how to do it or not?”

“Yes!” Katelyn spoke for them both. Neil leaned back and pushed in one of the stones. The wall opened and revealed a staircase leading down. 

“How did you find this?” Aaron questioned suspiciously. He’d discovered several secret passages in the castle, but he’d also lived in the castle his entire life. Neil had only been a resident for around four months. 

“I  _ really  _ hate meetings.” That wasn’t an answer, but Aaron didn’t have time to question him further, as Katelyn was already pulling him down the steps. 

“Thanks Neil!” She called over her shoulder. Neil just gave them a mischievous grin and closed the passage. Aaron turned his attention back to Katelyn. Or more specifically, the fact that she still hadn’t let go of his hand. 

  
  


Andrew was minding his own business, trying to avoid both Seth, and Nicky (for very different reasons), when someone ran into him. Literally ran into him. The only reason Andrew didn’t pull a knife on them was because a part of him thought it may have been Neil. It seemed like the sort of dumb move that Neil might pull. 

“What the hell?” A voice said. Andrew looked up, only to find his own eyes staring back at him. 

“What the hell is right,” he grumbled, shoving the guy off of him. 

“Woah. That is uncanny,” someone said somewhere to Andrew’s left, but his attention was still taken by the person standing in front of him with his face. 

“Who are you?” He demanded. Unfortunately, the other person had the same idea, and they ended up speaking completely in sync. They both frowned.

The other guy eyed Andrew in shock. “We could be brothers.” He looked back up at Andrew’s face. “I’m Aaron.”

“Am I supposed to believe that you just happen to share a name with the Prince?” Andrew scoffed.

Aaron rolled his eyes. “I don’t share a name with the prince, I  _ am  _ the prince. And I want to know why you look exactly like me.” He took a threatening step forward, but it was obvious that he was unused to trying to intimidate people, so it ended up having the same effect as a cat ruffling its fur. Despite his failed attempts at intimidation, Andrew knew immediately that Aaron was telling the truth about his identity, if only because anyone else would have known better than to leave his coin purse in the open, not to mention the fancy clothes. 

“I’m Andrew. And  _ you  _ are going to get yourself robbed. What are you a moron? Come on.” Andrew turned to lead him to the back entrance to his room above the flower shop. Why did Andrew only know dumbasses?

“Wait wait wait wait wait. You can’t just run off with him!” A palace girl, who Andrew  _ assumed  _ was the one escorting his highness into town, spoke up from behind Aaron, and Andrew realized she must have been the one to speak before. 

“Oh, and do  _ you  _ have clothes that will fit his majesty here?” Andrew rounded on her. “What exactly were you thinking? Allowing him out dressed like  _ that. Especially  _ this close to the royal wedding!” The girl seemed to shrink, but Aaron stepped in front of her. 

“Don’t talk to her like that,” he told Andrew firmly. He was far more threatening now than he had been earlier. And oh wasn’t that an interesting development? Andrew sighed. 

“Come on then, both of you. You wanted a day on the town right? One last chance at freedom before you’re tied to someone you don’t love? That is what is happening here isn’t it?” 

Aaron spluttered a bit. “How would you know if I-” His words stuttered to a halt as Andrew’s eyes cut to the servant girl and he raised an eyebrow. Aaron sighed. “Okay, yes fine, that’s what’s happening.” The girl just looked baffled.

“Thought so. Come on. You too carrot top.” 

“Carrot top!” The girl was offended by that apparently.

“Well, I mean, it is really red, Kate.” Apparently her name was Kate. Or probably a variation. Andrew filed the information away in his ‘never to be used because someone might think you actually care’ file.

“Aaron Michael you take that back!” Andrew couldn’t be bothered to turn around and see what was going on. It was probably some sort of weird courting ritual they no doubt had no idea they were doing. They seemed the types. 

“Ow! Hey!” 

“Shut up! Both of you! Do you  _ know  _ what part of town you’re in? It’s like you’re  _ trying  _ to get caught and sold into slavery or something.”

Aaron jogged to keep up with Andrew’s long strides. “Is that really something that happens here?”

“It didn’t used to. But there have been a lot of kids going missing recently. Anyone with even a little bit of magic. So whatever you do,  _ don’t use magic.” _

“Not a problem. I don’t have any.” Andrew stopped. Wasn’t that surprising? The prince didn’t have any magic to speak of? Traditionally, the ruler was the one with the most magic. They had to be, in order to protect the kingdom. Suddenly it seemed all the more imperative that he get Aaron out of the street. Whether he had magic or not, something was going on, and Andrew didn’t like the implications. 

He started moving again. “This way.” Andrew led them up a steep flight of steps that he was pretty sure weren’t actually supposed to have been steps, but instead part of the outer city wall, and down a narrow passage between two buildings. He hit the shutter on his bedroom window, shaking the latch loose, and led them inside. Then he spun around to stare at them. Kate was taller than Aaron by a couple of inches, with long poofy red hair and dark skin. Andrew wondered idly if her hair was darker or lighter than Neil’s hair. He thought maybe darker, but it was hard to tell in the dim light of the room.

“You are both so unbelievably stupid,” he started. “Probably the stupidest people I have ever met. Which is saying something, because I know-”  _ Neil.  _ Neil was dumb, but he was also street smart, and knew how and when to not be seen. “Nevermind.” He pointed at Aaron. “You need clothes that aren’t going to get you kidnapped or killed,” he pointed at Kate, “and  _ you _ need to go get this list of things from the shop downstairs. Tell Nicky - he’s the loud obnoxiously cheerful one - that I sent you, and tell Seth that you’re a customer if you see him. Don’t let Seth know you’re with me.” Andrew jotted down the few herbs he needed on a sheet of paper and passed it to her. 

She took it, looking confused, but didn’t protest. 

“Andrew? What’s going on?” Aaron asked as soon as she had left. “I mean, I knew that things were probably worse for people out here, but I never knew they were like-” 

“Like this? Oh but your Majesty, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Let me spell it out for you. No one in the country has magic anymore. Which would be fine, except that also means that no one is able to defend themselves against the outsiders, who do have the magic. Around here, you have two options, sell yourself to someone in exchange for protection, or get beaten down until you have no choice but to sell yourself and your family for protection.”

“Wait wait wait. Where are these others getting the magic from?”

“What does it matter? They’re using it against us!”

“It  _ matters  _ because Palmetto is the only source for any and all magic on the continent.”

“You’re sure?” 

“That’s why we’ve done so well despite being so small and _ apparently _ not trading in any other resources.” That was apparently a touchy subject for the prince then. 

“If we’re the only source of magic, where are they getting it from then?” Andrew met Aaron’s eyes, which had hardened to steel. 

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out.” 

  
  


By the time Katelyn came back, arms loaded with plants, Aaron had changed and they had some of Andrew’s books open between them.

“Um. What are you doing?” 

Aaron looked up. “Kate! You’re back! We’re unravelling a conspiracy! Come look!” 

Andrew eyed her distrustfully. “Are you sure she can be trusted?”

“Who, Katelyn? Of course I am. She’s my best friend!” Katelyn may have been just about the only person he trusted if he was being honest. Andrew continued to eye her for a moment before finally nodding and taking the plants from her arms. He spread them across the desk before pulling out a bowl. 

“Aaron, hand me the book that’s sitting next to you- No not that one, the one below it.” Aaron handed the book over.

“Why do you have so many magic books anyway Andrew?”

“My mother stole them from the castle when I started showing signs of magic.”

“You have magic? What’s it like? Is it hard?” He had so many questions. Did having magic feel different than not having magic? Did it come naturally, or did Andrew have to use books to learn it? 

“It is when you keep interrupting me.”

“Wait, you’re doing magic right now?”

“ _ Yes.  _ Now  _ hush.” _ Aaron watched, fascinated, as whatever spell Andrew was casting started to glow. “Give me a lock of your hair,” Andrew demanded.

“What? Why?” 

“Because I need it for the spell, obviously.”

“What spell?” Andrew just levelled him with a look, and Aaron begrudgingly pulled out a couple strands of hair. 

“Aaron? Should you really be giving your look-a-like your hair?” Katelyn whispered. 

Aaron could only shrug in response. Was it the safest thing to do? Probably not. Did he have any better ideas? Also no. The spell continued to glow, but it turned a brighter pink with every new ingredient Andrew added.

Katelyn leaned over curiously. “Is it supposed to be doing that?”

“Yes. Now hush.” Andrew threw a clump of his own hair into the spell, and the entire thing turned a vibrant yellow. “Aaron. Do you know your family tree?”

“Yes, of course.”

“So you would be able to recognize its accuracy?” 

“Yes.” 

“Good. Lay this out flat.” Andrew tossed a roll of paper behind him without turning around. Aaron did as he was told, eying Andrew out of the corner of his eye as he did so. The spell had stopped glowing, but he couldn’t see what it looked like anymore. 

“Ready?”

“Are you going to tell me what I’m supposed to be ready for?”

“No.”

“Sure, whatever.” Andrew poured the contents of his spell onto the paper Aaron had spread across the floor. It sat there in a pool of black ink before seeping into the paper and spreading across to form words and pictures. When the spell stopped moving, there was an exact replica of the family tree hanging on the wall of the great hall in the castle. 

A near exact replica. Sitting next to Aaron’s name on the bottom of the tree was a second name. “Andrew Joseph,” Aaron said. He looked at the man who was apparently his twin. “How did you know?”

“We look identical,” Andrew said dryly.

Aaron was not amused. Andrew had known about something else. “Try again.”

Andrew sighed. “I was adopted. My mother used to work in the castle. She knew to take the magic books, even though I showed only the normal amount of magic for someone my age as a child. The royal family is supposed to have a direct link to the country's magic. Despite everyone else losing their magic, mine hasn’t waned. And since you don’t have any at all…”

“You must have received the family connection to the magic,” Aaron finished for him.

Katelyn stared at Andrew contemplatively. “So what you’re saying is you stole all of Aaron’s magic in the womb.”

“Yes,” Andrew stared right back at her. 

“Right. Well, as enlightening as this has been, There’s obviously something bigger than both of us at play here, so I’m going to need you to fill me in on what exactly is going on down here. I knew I should have tried harder to get her to let me out of the castle.” 

“Aaron, there’s no way you could have known-”

“It’s supposed to be my  _ job  _ to know Kate!”

“Well, hurry up then, you’ll want to get back to the castle before dark.”

  
  


Andrew was already tired of having a twin. He was exhausting. Everything in town was new for him, so he asked far too many questions. He also talked a lot, especially about science, which, _ boring.  _ And if he wasn’t talking, or asking questions, he was watching the Kate girl and sighing wistfully. 

“If you’re that in love with her, why don’t you marry her instead of King Whatshisface?” Andrew finally asked, bored of all of the pining. It was obvious she felt the same way about him (though she at least tried to be subtle), it should have been a match made in heaven.

“What? I don’t! We’re not!” Aaron was almost a crimson color, which Andrew would normally find amusing, except he was coming to the realization that if Aaron blushed that red, he did as well. Andrew levelled him with a look, but was combing through every interaction he had ever had with Neil where he might have blushed. So far he was coming up empty, but you could never be too sure.

“Okay fine. She’s my best friend.” He shrugged like  _ what do you expect?  _ And Andrew pretended he didn’t understand what Aaron meant. His weird obsession with Neil’s hair was his own business. “But I can’t marry her, It’s my duty to do what’s best for the kingdom, and right now that means marrying King Nathaniel to keep us from going bankrupt because  _ apparently  _ my  _ mother  _ invested  _ all of our resources in one place.”  _

“Tell me how you really feel,” Andrew said dryly. 

“I- I don’t have a choice, even if my mother would approve of Katelyn as a wife - which she won’t by the way - I have a sworn duty to my people first.”

“So you would tie yourself to someone you don’t even know?”

“If I must.” Aaron turned to look at him. “What about you? Why are you still here if you hate it so much?”

“I was promised to Seth’s family to pay off my mother’s debts. I’m an indentured servant. Until the debt is paid off, my life is legally not my own.”

“That’s barbaric!”

“That’s how it works around here. I’m one of the lucky ones. I was sold off before I could get caught by one of the outsiders.”

“Ugh. Well, when I’m king, that’s going to be one of the first things to go,” Aaron told him before Andrew had to pull him out of the way of a carriage.

“If you can make it to king. So far, you’re not doing so great at the whole not dying thing.” 

Aaron blushed again and shoved him in the arm. “Shut up, Andrew.”

  
  


The only thing Aaron wanted to do when he returned to the castle was bury himself in the library and try and learn everything he could about the royal connection to the kingdom’s magic. Though he suspected that Andrew had most of the books on the subject in his possession. 

“Your majesty, I beg you to please reconsider!” Aaron stopped walking at the sound of Riko’s voice and stepped off to the side, out of sight of the cracked door to the main hall. He wondered what on earth Riko could possibly be wanting his mother to reconsider, considering she listened to his every piece of advice like he spoke the words of God himself.

“No Riko, I will _ not _ reconsider. Our people need this money.”

“But surely it would be wiser for the prince to marry someone a bit closer to home, someone who you _ know _ has the kingdom’s  _ best  _ interests at heart.”

“And who is it that you propose? Our people are barely surviving, no one here would have anywhere near the wealth necessary to keep the kingdom afloat. Let alone bring it back from the brink!”

“Well, your majesty, I may not be a Palmetto native, but I assure you, I have only the country’s best interests in mind. And my family’s wealth is… not insubstantial.”

“You? Ha. Don’t make me laugh. My son will be marrying King Nathaniel, and that is final!” Aaron scampered away from the door as he heard Riko stalking towards him. Well, that certainly explained what Riko’s problem was then. Riko turned the corner and saw Aaron there, lost in his own thoughts again. Aaron met his gaze and had to fight a chill at the slow smile that spread across his face before he turned and walked off.

Riko was planning something, and Aaron had a feeling that it was somehow going to be even less appealing than marriage to Riko would be. 

  
  


“Someone from the castle is here and wants to speak to you Andrew.” Seth narrowed his eyes at him. “No funny business. Don’t you dare ruin our relationship to the castle.” Andrew rolled his eyes, but followed Seth to the front. He was unsurprised to find that the person standing there was Katelyn. 

“Andrew. Oh thank god. I need your help.” Andrew sighed and grabbed his cloak.

“What’s this about?” He questioned as soon as they were outside

“Aaron’s gone.” 

“What do you mean Aaron’s gone?”

“I  _ mean  _ Aaron was supposed to meet me in the library this morning and he never showed up. And when I went looking for him, Riko was in the throne room waving around a note he supposedly found in Aaron’s rooms, ranting about how Aaron had run away.”

“Who is Riko?”

“The queen’s advisor. Aaron hates him, and he’s almost certainly got something to do with this.” 

“So, what? Do you want my help finding him or something?”

“Can you find him? With magic or something?”

“No.”

“Ah, it was worth a shot. No, what I was thinking was something more along the lines of ‘you pretend to be Aaron until we can figure out where Riko is hiding him.’ Riko is up to no good, and whatever his plan is, we can’t let it happen.”

“You do realize I don’t know the first thing about being a prince right?”

“I’ve been Aaron’s friend since we were kids, I can help you.  _ Please _ Andrew.” He’d only had a twin for a day and a half. He didn’t owe Aaron anything. But Andrew thought about Aaron’s words from the day before.  _ It’s supposed to be my  _ job _ to know, when I’m king, that’s going to be one of the first things to go.  _ Aaron would be a good king one day. Andrew supposed it was probably his job, as the one with all of the magic, to get him there. 

“Okay, fine. I still don’t like you though.”

Aaron was straight up not having a good time. He stared at the door of his prison cell, which he had figured out was actually just an old cabin, and sulked. As much as he had hated getting married off to someone he had never met, being married off to Riko - which he assumed was Riko’s end game with the whole kidnapping thing - would be infinitely worse, he was sure. 

“Let. Me. Out!” he yelled again.

“No!” One of Riko’s goons yelled back in that infuriatingly chipper voice. Aaron had only been in the room for a few hours, and he already hated everything about this. He studied the rest of the room he was in. There was a bed - which had a blanket of dust covering the worn duvet; an old fireplace - which probably hadn’t seen use in years; a chair - which they also hadn’t bothered to dust off; a bowl and a pitcher of what was most likely water; and a wardrobe that was falling apart. There was even an old oil lamp sitting next to the fireplace.

It only took five minutes for the wardrobe to go up in flames.

Aaron wrapped a strip of fabric he tore off of the crumbling duvet around his face after soaking it in the - thankfully fresh - water from the pitcher. It only took him throwing the chair at the wall for it to smash to pieces. He took one of the - now broken - legs, and wrapped another strip of the cotton duvet tightly around the top of the leg. He then poured the entire contents of the oil lamp over the top. It didn’t take long for the room to fill with smoke. After all, it had probably been years since the floor had been cleaned. 

As soon as the smoke started to escape from the cracks around the door, Aaron heard the henchmen shout and run towards the room. He lit his homemade torch and waited beside the door. As soon as it had been flung open and the henchmen rushed in, Aaron stepped out the door and closed it behind him. He decided he wasn’t quite mean enough to lock it, but he did wander around the rest of the cabin, lighting anything that looked even slightly flammable while the men fought with the unlocked door. He then threw the torch into the middle of the room and left the cabin. 

From there, it was a simple matter of stealing one of the horses tied up outside, and making his escape. Good riddance, honestly.

  
  


Andrew very much did not like being a prince. There were so many rules, and all of them contradicted each other. Not to mention, most of the rules were completely pointless in the first place. 

“So you’re telling me that Aaron really knows, and _ follows _ all of these rules?”

“Knows? yes. Follows? less so. He spends more time in the library than is usually allowed, but otherwise is pretty good about following them.” 

“Goody two shoes,” Andrew muttered under his breath. Katelyn just grinned at him and pointed in the direction of the table settings she had laid out. 

“Come on, we’re having dinner with the ambassador tonight. You have to know this.” Andrew did not want to have dinner with the ambassador; he wanted to go back home and practice magic on his plants. He also wanted to look at all of the magic books his mother  _ hadn’t  _ stolen from the castle library. And he would very much like to hit his brother over the head a few times for having the audacity to get  _ kidnapped  _ during a  _ crisis.  _

He managed to not do anything too scandalous as Katelyn led him down to the great hall. Not for the first time, Andrew was grateful he had always had the unique ability to remember just about everything with near perfect clarity. He missed his big, stompy boots and his comfortable clothes; no wonder Aaron had looked so hesitant to leave the day before, if this was the sort of thing that he had to wear every day.

“-the time is up, I’m afraid that King Nathaniel cannot wait any longer for the prince to be found.” Katelyn hurried her pace and rushed into the room.

“Please excuse my rudeness, your highness, but I have found the prince.” Andrew took that as his cue and followed her through the doors. 

“Aaron! Where have you been?” Andrew noticed the telltale clench of fists and tightening frown that signalled it was only the queen’s grasp on proper decorum that stopped her from hitting him. He frowned, but stuck to the script he and Katelyn had prepared. 

“What’s all this about?” he asked, as if confused. Aaron had always looked a bit confused the day before, so he didn’t think it was too far off the mark.

The queen repeated herself, “Where have you been?”

“The library, where I usually am on Sundays. What’s going on? Katelyn said everyone was looking for me?” No matter how much he could have tried, Andrew knew he would never be able to replicate the soft voice Aaron used whenever he said Katelyn’s name. It was kind of disgusting actually. 

“We found a letter… on your desk…” The queen looked just as baffled as Andrew was pretending to be.

“Who could I possibly be writing a letter to? I’ve never left the castle,” Andrew lied smoothly. One of the men standing at the queen’s side looked furious, but didn’t contradict him. Andrew was momentarily distracted by a soft snort, and was surprised to find that it was no other than Neil. Somehow, Andrew didn’t find it all that hard to believe that he knew Aaron had left the castle the day before. He had to actively keep his face neutral. 

“Hmm, that is a mystery, but no matter, let us feast and celebrate next week’s wedding!” The queen clapped her hands and the court resumed its murmuring. Andrew took his place at the queen’s side and ignored the stony look from who he assumed was Riko, based on the rather impressive glares he was sending Andrew’s way. Andrew found himself somehow seated next to Neil, who, based on Katelyn’s mouthed words, was supposed to be the ambassador from the kingdom of Baltimore, where Aaron’s betrothed was ruling. It was more than a little unfair that Andrew couldn’t call him out on his many, many trips into the city dressed as a page boy.

“So how was your day yesterday Aaron?” Neil asked conversationally. Andrew eyed him suspiciously. 

“Fine.” Neil gave him a knowing grin that could have meant anything at all. 

“You know, you look remarkably like-” 

“Like who?” Andrew glared at him moodily.

“Nevermind.” Neil looked back at him as Andrew eyed him suspiciously, but let it go and sunk further into his chair. This was going to be a very long night. 

  
  


It was nearly nightfall by the time Aaron made it to the village below the castle. He pulled the horse up in front of Andrew’s shop, debating on whether or not he should go in and tell Andrew what was going on or not. Before he had the chance to decide however, he found that he was being dragged off of the horse and shoved into the shop by a rather irate man he assumed must be Seth, the shop owner. 

“Seven days before the Prince’s wedding and you decide to go runnin’ off? You and Nicky can stay in here until every one of those bouquets are done!” Seth dragged him into the back room and threw him to the ground. Aaron was going to protest, say that he was not in fact Andrew and even if he were, this was not how you should treat another person - but the door was slammed and locked in his face. 

“You’re not Andrew,” The other person in the room commented. Oh. He must be Nicky. Aaron thought he had heard Andrew mention him a few times.

“No. I’m not.”

“You look just like him.”

“Well, I’m not him!” Aaron snapped at the man. He didn’t mean to really. He was just tired, and frustrated, and covered in soot, and all he really wanted was to go home and sleep the rest of his life away. But no, instead he had been kidnapped not once, but  _ twice _ in the last twenty four hours and now had to somehow finish all of Andrew’s work before he would even  _ begin  _ to be allowed to leave.

“Hey. Are you alright?” Nicky put down the flowers he was arranging, and moved to stand by Aaron’s side, but he didn’t touch.

“Not really, no,” Aaron responded tightly.

“Well, here. I’ll show you how to arrange the table bouquets while you tell me what’s wrong. I have always found it to be sort of soothing, working with the flowers. And I know Andrew does too, even though he doesn’t say anything.” Nicky smiled at him kindly, and waited for Aaron to nod his consent before leading him to the other stool at the workbench, which obviously belonged to Andrew, if the little spell diagrams he had scribbled on scraps of paper were anything to go by.

Nicky sat him down, and explained what to do, then listened with only a few remarks while Aaron explained what had happened over the last two days. It was nearly light outside before he had finished telling the story, during which time, Nicky had derailed the entire conversation to talk about his fiance no less than a dozen times. With the morning light filtering in through the window panes however, Aaron no longer had the energy to listen to his speech about Erik’s beautiful long hair.

“How does Andrew live with you?” He asked, too tired to try and be polite.

“Oh he doesn’t. He usually tells me to shut up way before now,” Nicky told him brightly. Aaron nodded. That did sound like Andrew. He sighed as he stared forlornly at the piles of flowers that still had to be arranged or braided into garlands. As soon as he was out of here, Aaron would be firing Seth, he decided, if for no reason other than pure spite.

  
  


Andrew was not good at being a prince. He was not even close to good at being a prince. And it wasn’t long until he had given up all pretenses of being Aaron around anyone other than the court. It was anyone’s guess if any of the servants had noticed that he wasn’t Aaron yet, but the fact that he spent so much time with Katelyn probably helped. He wasn’t sure what to do about the fact that he also somehow ended up spending a lot of time with Neil. 

Neil was an anomaly. Nothing he said or did added up, and yet he still managed to be the exact same person Andrew had gotten to know over the last few months. It was on the second day he was in the castle that he finally figured out why. Somehow, Neil announcing to the entire court that he was not in fact the ambassador, but King Nathaniel himself, was the least alarming thing that had happened to Andrew in the past week. 

Of course that didn’t mean he trusted Neil’s reasons for showing up to the castle four months early. 

“Why are you here?” Andrew demanded. Neil opened his mouth, a smirk tugging at his lips, and Andrew immediately knew that Neil was about to spew nonsense. “You know what I mean. Answer the question.” 

Neil stared at him as if searching his face for something. “Alright fine. So I’m the king right? But I’m not  _ actually _ the king. I’m more of a figurehead. The Moriyama family has been controlling things in Baltimore long before I became king. Which means I kind of can do whatever I want. So when Ichirou decided that I should be in an arranged marriage, I decided I should come figure out what sort of person I would be marrying.” 

Andrew didn’t believe a word of it. “Oh. Is that why you decided to run off into town every day instead?” 

Neil grinned. “It was a good enough excuse for Ichirou. No offense though, I don’t really want to get married.”

“The feeling is mutual,” Andrew responded. He was sure Aaron would probably have said it more politely, but Andrew was not Aaron, and Andrew did not care about being polite. It seemed that his rudeness worked however, as Neil only grinned and continued to follow him around the castle. Andrew considered making him leave, but honestly, he liked hearing Neil chatter away as he worked. He liked  _ Neil.  _ So he let Neil follow him into the library and fill it with background noise as he tried to figure out what the hell was happening to the kingdom’s magic.

It was his fifth day of playing prince in Aaron’s place that he realized that he would need some of the books in his own collection. Seeing as he was now as trapped in the castle as Aaron had been, he sent Katelyn to get them.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Neil asked reproachfully. “What if whoever is coming after you goes after her instead?” the ‘ _ because it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that Aaron is in love with her’  _ went unsaid. 

“If they do, I will handle it,” he responded tightly. That was the worst thing, he thought, if Neil was right and Andrew did let something happen to her, Aaron would never forgive him. But Aaron wasn’t here, and there was nothing Andrew could do about either the disappearing magic - or his vanished brother - without those books. It had been so long since Andrew’d had a family, and he wasn’t going to stop now that he had finally gotten one again.

  
  


Plants were exhausting. They were big, and heavy, and not all of them looked nice all the time. Without Andrew’s magic to help them along, they grew painfully slow, and started to wilt sooner, despite all of Aaron and Nicky’s best efforts. Seth had finally started letting him out of the back of the shop after the second day, when he had passed out at the workbench. 

Aaron couldn’t even think about escape though. Not only was he constantly under Seth’s heavy surveillance, but he was always so exhausted after a day of trying to keep up with Andrew’s work, it was all he could do to stay awake long enough to mount the stairs to Andrew’s room, let alone try and make it to the castle. 

Five days.

Five days, he was locked in the flower shop, trying to do what he had come to discover, was really the work of four people. With every hour that passed, and every curse of Andrew’s name he heard, the more he was certain that as soon as he got back to the castle he would be tearing the entire system apart and rebuilding it. 

It was on the fifth day that he heard the one voice he would be able to recognize anywhere. Aaron dropped what he was doing and ran to the front room, where he stopped short. Gods above, she was a sight for sore eyes. Aaron decided that no matter what happened from now on, there was no way in hell he would be marrying anyone but her. His mother could complain all she liked.

“Katelyn!” he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Aaron! Have you been here this whole time?” She ignored Seth’s confused yell as she ran to Aaron’s side. 

He wrapped her in a hug and buried his face in her hair. “Not the whole time. I was locked in a cabin for a bit.”

“Well, enough of that! Come on, let’s go get poor Andrew out of Neil’s clutches.” Katelyn grabbed his hand and tugged him towards the door. 

“Wait. Why is Andrew at the castle? And Neil? I’m so confused.” 

Katelyn ignored Seth, who was still sputtering out half formed sentences, and gave Aaron a pointed look. “I’ll explain on the way.”

Aaron just sighed and followed her out the door. 

“Oh! The magic books! I nearly forgot!” She exclaimed, coming to a halt. “Do you think we should-”

“Should what Madam?” They both turned to see who spoke, and Aaron found he was unsurprised to discover that it was none other than Riko himself.

“Riko,” Aaron greeted him tightly.

“So this is where you have been hiding. I knew there was something wrong with the person at the castle, he’s a bit too… unreasonable.”

“And I suppose you think I’ll be more reasonable then?”

“You will if you care about the girl!” Before Aaron had a chance to blink, one of Riko’s cronies had Katelyn in his arms, with a knife to her throat. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized that he had to have planned this, as the man had seemed to come from nowhere.

“Let her go Riko!” He exclaimed furiously. Riko just laughed, and Aaron found his own arms restrained. The two of them were tied up and shoved into the back of a wagon to be taken who knows where. 

‘Who knows where’ ended up being the magic mines, now abandoned. Normally Aaron would be overjoyed to see them deserted, as he had always believed them to be a bad idea, but now the gaping hole in the mountain loomed over him a bit ominously. Riko shoved them into the mine, not an easy task, as he and Katelyn’s hands were tied together behind their backs. They were thrown rather unceremoniously into an empty room some distance from the entrance to the mine.

“Just what are you trying to accomplish with this?” Aaron demanded as he attempted to untie the ropes around Katelyn’s hands from behind his back.

“Power! Prince Aaron! I want the power! I want control of this kingdom, and what magic is left! My brother is content to rule from the shadows, using puppets like  _ King Nathaniel _ to play his games, but I want  _ more  _ than that!”

“And you think killing me is going to help you how?” Aaron demanded, starting to believe that perhaps Riko was just as far off his rocker as his own mother was. 

“Oh, I don’t plan on killing you. Not until I get the imposter out of the way.”

“Oh? And how do you plan to do that?” Aaron goaded him, the ropes were finally starting to loosen, it would only be a few moments longer.

Riko brandished Aaron’s ring bearing the royal crest like a trophy. “With this!” Aaron failed to see how that would prove anything, as Andrew had obviously not been wearing it for the past few days, and Aaron himself had a habit of taking it off when he was writing so it didn’t get covered in ink. In fact, Aaron didn’t even know when Riko had taken it in the first place. He could have had it since Aaron was first captured, and Aaron would have been too busy trying to do Andrew’s work to even notice.

“Farewell,” Riko slammed the door shut, and Aaron heard the telltale clang of a lock. He sighed and stopped picking at the ropes.

“Well, I hope Andrew likes being king,” Aaron said glumly.

  
  
  


Aaron was going to kill him. This was it, Andrew was dead, and it would be at the hands of his own brother, a mere week after discovering his existence. At least it wouldn’t be a boring way to die. Neil was not helping matters either. 

“It’s been hours! It does not take this long to get to the flower shop and back. I told you that you shouldn’t have let her go,” he said mildly, but Andrew could tell he was rather enjoying the drama.

“I hate you,” he told him seriously.

“Every time you say that, I believe you a little less.” Andrew narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything about the extreme deja vu that plagued him at the words. The two entered the great hall, where they were supposed to be going over the last of the wedding plans. Andrew secretly thought that if this was what Aaron had to deal with every day, he would not have blamed him for running away. The meetings were all achingly dull.

“Ah, Prince Aaron, there you are. We were just discussing why we might have found this in the woods,” Riko held up what must have been Aaron’s signet ring. 

“I couldn’t tell you,” Andrew responded dryly. “I misplaced it a while ago.”

“There. You see Riko, I told you he’s always misplacing important things.” The queen shot Andrew a dirty look. Andrew wasn’t sure what she was referring to, but he didn’t like that look either way. The sooner he could get his brother back, and on the throne, the better.

“Something isn’t adding up,” Riko insisted. “He has been acting strange for the past week!”

“He is about to marry someone he barely knows. I’d be surprised if he didn’t act strange,” Neil commented. Andrew narrowed his eyes at the king, and was annoyed and impressed in equal measure when Neil had the audacity to wink at him.

“Your majesty! I really must insist you look into this-”

“Just what are you trying to imply, Riko?” Andrew finally spoke up.

“You are nothing but an imposter!” Riko shouted. 

“An imposter? Really? Because of a ring I rarely wear anyway?” Andrew didn’t actually know how often Aaron wore the ring, but if it were him, he would hate having the weight on his hands as he worked, and he liked to imagine that he and Aaron had at least  _ some  _ things in common. 

“If you really are Prince Aaron, where is the girl? She so rarely leaves your side after all.” Riko grinned as the gathered gentry burst into murmurs. Andrew was baffled that any of them thought that Riko’s words made any sense at all. As if Katelyn were nothing but an object to display on Aaron’s arm. Andrew did not know Katelyn very well, nor did he like her all that much, but he thought that implying that she was only worth something as long as she was at Aaron’s side was a bit of a low blow. He’d had enough of this really. 

“Okay, prove it.”

“What?”

“If I’m an imposter, prove it. Surely you must have some proof. Katelyn doesn’t count as she is her own person and can go and do what she wishes, with or without my permission. So come on, out with it then Moriyama. Those are some lofty accusations. Where. Is. your. Proof.”

The room went silent as everyone watched to see what Riko would do. 

It turned out that Riko didn’t have to do anything, as the doors swung open and both Riko and Neil flinched at the man who entered. Which could only mean that this man was Ichirou Moriyama himself.

“Pardon my intrusion, but I believe I can clarify some things for you,” Ichirou greeted the room pleasantly. “My name is Ichirou Moriyama, and I apologize for any issues my brother has caused for your court. If you don’t mind, I would like to gain a private audience with the royalty in the room.” Maybe it was his confidence, or the aura of danger, but the rest of the court emptied the room immediately, leaving only Neil, Andrew, the queen, and the obviously estranged brothers. 

As soon as the doors had closed behind them, Ichirou had plunged a knife into Riko’s heart. Andrew couldn’t say he was upset, but he would also have liked to drag Aaron’s location out of the asshole before he died. The queen screamed and Ichirou dropped into a low bow. 

“Apologies to your majesty, I will pay for the cleaning expenses, but it had to be done. You see, my brother has been working against the will of the family for quite a while, attempting to take power that was never meant for him. He had to be eliminated.” He turned to Andrew. 

“He was right about one thing, however. You are not who you say you are. My men informed me that my brother kidnapped the prince nearly a week ago.” Andrew didn’t respond, and Ichirou waved him off. 

“It’s no matter really. Men, place the imposter in the dungeon for the moment.” Andrew didn’t struggle as the men dragged him out the door. The last thing he heard was Ichirou addressing the queen again. “Now your majesty, if you value your kingdom at all, you will listen to my demands.” 

  
  


Aaron was getting fairly good at making torches now. Of course it helped that all of the supplies just happened to be sitting around in clearly marked boxes, but all the same. 

“Why’d they abandon this place?” Katelyn wondered aloud. 

“All the magic is dried up,” Aaron responded. “They took it all.”

“All of it? I find that unlikely. Where would they put it?”

“Well, we know they have to be selling at least some of it off to other countries since they are using it to enslave our people. I imagine they’re probably selling it back to our own people for twice the price as well. As protective talismans and the like. I think I remember seeing some in town when we were wandering around.”

“But  _ why? _ ”

Aaron sighed. “Power? Control? I don’t know Kate. Whatever it is, if we get out of here, I’m going to put a stop to it though.” 

“When.” Katelyn stared at him, her eyes flickering through a rainbow of colors in the torchlight.

Aaron’s voice caught in his throat. “What?”

“ _ When _ we get out of here.” She took his hand again, and Aaron clung to her like she was a raft and he was drowning. He wondered if she would allow him to hold her hand forever. Probably not. But he liked the idea of it all.

“Kate,” He whispered.

“Aaron,” She whispered back.

“What if I don’t want to marry King Nathaniel?”

“Oh Aaron, I already knew that.”

“What if I want to marry someone else instead?” Katelyn’s hand tightened in his own, and he knew she understood what he meant. Katelyn had always been smarter than him. 

“I’m sure they would love to marry you,” she said slowly, “but what about your mother-”

“My mother would not be the one getting married, would she?” Aaron replied. Katelyn threw her arms around his neck. 

“Let's get out of here, then you can ask me properly,” she whispered into his ear.

“I- yeah okay.” Aaron looked around the room they were in again. Then he stopped. “Kate. What do you know about magic?”

“Um. Not much. I only know a couple of spells I learned from books. I lost my magic pretty early, so I never bothered to learn many.” Aaron kept his eyes fixed on the point that had caught his attention earlier.

“Which spells?”

“Um. A few joke spells? A distance spell. Um. I read about the flight spell, but I never had enough magic to actually try it.”

“Great. Cool. Awesome,” Aaron muttered as he walked towards the container, which he hoped was labelled correctly. Katelyn followed him, having caught sight of the words written on the side as well. 

“Aaron? Are you sure this is a good idea? What if something goes wrong? What if there’s nothing in it? What if it’s too much for us?” 

He looked at her. “Yeah but what if it’s not?” She gave him a steady look, then nodded.

“Let's do this then.” She took the torch as Aaron found a pick ax left over from the miners. It only took one hit before the contents were spilling out onto the floor, leaving it awash with golden light. Aaron could feel it spilling over his boots and soaking into his bloodstream. Was this what Andrew felt like all the time? No wonder he had been so angry at others being made powerless. It must be awful to have this light flooding your veins, only to have it dragged back out of you again.

Aaron had never had magic. He had never had it, and therefore had never felt the need to learn about it, to learn to focus and control and bend it to his will. And he was banking on that lack of knowledge now. 

“Kate. How does that distance spell work?”

“It just tells how far away from something you are. I learned it because it was easy, and didn’t require much power. I’m not sure how-”

“How far away is the mine from the castle?” 

Katelyn knew, because of course she knew, she was amazing. “Ten miles.”

“Right, okay, how far from the castle are we right now?” Katelyn’s eyes lit up as she realized what he was asking. She crouched on the ground and started to draw a diagram in the sand. 

“Nine point eight,” she finally answered.

“Can you tell how far down we are?”

“Only a few meters it looks like.”

“Cool. Kate, do you need anything to do that flight spell?” Katelyn shook her head. 

“It doesn’t require components or spell aides” 

“Awesome. You may want to hold on to me then. I’ve never done this before,” Aaron told her seriously, the ominous mood was shattered when he grinned however. “It’s a bit fun though, wreaking havoc on people’s plans.” Katelyn didn’t answer, just kissed him square on the lips.

“Right. Let's go then.” Aaron thought that blowing things up should be the easiest thing in the world, with as much magic as he had just acquired. It was just a matter of pointing it in the right direction. For his purposes, that direction just happened to be straight up. 

If he were anyone else, and if he were with anyone else, he’s not sure it would have worked. But Aaron was royalty. His blood was made for magic, and Katelyn was the smartest person he knew. 

So when Aaron thought about what he needed, the magic was more than happy to help him blow a hole in the ceiling. He realized a bit too late that he had forgotten that everything above him had to go somewhere - primarily down - but luckily the magic also responded to that need and he found himself and Katelyn wrapped in a shield of golden light.

“Huh,” Aaron said. Katelyn took a deep breath, obviously a bit rattled from their brush with death, but she stood tall as she closed her eyes and focused on making them fly. They slowly started to rise off the floor, and Aaron could only stare at her in awe. He was  _ definitely  _ going to be marrying her, mother be damned.

  
  


Andrew did not like the dungeons. They were dark, dirty, and hadn’t been used in over a decade, so they were a bit cramped with all of the other things no one had bothered to use in over a decade. Andrew did not have time to be a prisoner. He had a brother to find. Plus he should probably also find said brother’s girlfriend, since he was kind of at fault for her disappearance in the first place. Not to mention, he would also very much like to punch at  _ least  _ one Moriyama in the face. He didn’t bother waiting for the guard to stop paying attention before he was twisting a piece of wire he found on the ground into a makeshift lockpick. 

“What are you doing?” The guard asked as he noticed Andrew unlocking the door. For once, Andrew was thankful that he was smaller than the average human, as it meant his arms actually fit through the bars. 

“Escaping obviously,” he told him, as he swung the door open into the man’s face. One hit was all it took to knock the man out. Andrew thought he might have actually been a bit disappointed. He strolled up the stairs, confident in his ability to take down any other guards that came his way, if they were all like that one.

“That was fast,” Neil said behind him. Andrew turned to look over his shoulder.

He was dressed as a guard, helmet and everything. “Are you here to stop me?” Andrew asked him testily.

“Nope!” Neil responded cheerfully.

“How long did you know?” Andrew asked, continuing his assent.

“Since the minute you arrived. I’m the one who showed Katelyn how to get out of the castle after all.”

“So what was your plan then, Mr. Know-It-All.” Andrew thought he should probably be more mad at Neil for lying to him, but then again, he had also been lying to Neil. Whether Neil knew about the lie was irrelevant. Neil shrugged. 

“Wreak havoc I suppose. I was not expecting Ichirou to get involved, and the kidnapping was a surprise, but I suppose as far as havoc goes, it worked.” 

Andrew stared at him for a minute. “I hate you.”

“Andrew, we’ve talked about this. How long did you know? What gave it away.” Andrew thought back to all the times Neil never called him Aaron, the inside jokes, and the not so subtle flower references.

“Day two. I had a feeling at the banquet, but didn’t confirm it until you told me who you really were.”

Neil grinned. “So that’s why you didn’t even try to disguise yourself!”

Andrew rolled his eyes and eyed Neil’s latest costume. “You do love disguises don’t you.”

Neil just grinned happily and offered his hand for Andrew to take. Andrew took it. He was still a bit mad about the whole lying thing, but the boy he’d been pining over for months was asking to hold his hand, what was he going to do? Say no? Neil gave him another of his sunshine grins, and Andrew hated him even more. 

“So what’s the plan now?” Neil asked.

“I’d like to know the same thing.”

  
  


Aaron loved Katelyn, and he loved that she was finally able to do a spell she had obviously been dreaming about for years, but he really  _ really  _ didn’t like flying. The castle was a buzz with activity when they arrived, and he had to force himself to stay in the shadows. He didn’t know what was going on, but he needed to find Andrew before they did anything else. It was weird to have to sneak around his own home. 

“It’s like playing hide and seek with Dad again,” Katelyn whispered with a light laugh. Aaron didn’t think it was like that at all, but he smiled at her all the same.

“What’s the plan now?” said a voice around the corner from he and Katelyn’s hiding spot. It was the entrance to the dungeons, and since no one ever went into the dungeons anymore, that had to mean- 

“I’d like to know the same thing,” he announced. He could feel Katelyn playing lookout at his back, and was once again grateful for her. Neil jumped, which gave Aaron no small amount of glee, but Andrew just turned to give him a dry look. Aaron noticed that they were holding hands though, and made a note to tease Andrew about it later.

“Maybe we should get out of the hallway?” Katelyn muttered to them, still watching at Aaron’s back. He nodded.

“If you were in the dungeons, it’s most likely that no one would think to watch my room. Maybe we should go there?” Andrew hummed in agreement and Neil started to drag him down the hallway. 

“Great! I know a secret passage!” Aaron scowled at him, but followed.

“Right, so does anyone know what is going on?” Andrew asked. The four of them were sitting in a circle on Aaron's bed, Neil was playing with the tassel on one of the curtains and Andrew was laying back into the pillows, staring at the ceiling. Aaron couldn’t decide if it was good staring or bad staring, he didn’t know Andrew that well yet. And if they didn’t manage to figure this out, he never would. That was a sobering thought.

“Ichirou has given up on Aaron and has instead set his sights on Queen Tilda. Likely, he will marry her, and she’ll have a tragic but unavoidable accident a few months later. It is for this reason, that he will want to make the wedding as big a spectacle as possible. Which means that he is of course, just hijacking the one meant for us,” Neil filled them in, looking far too chipper in Aaron’s opinion. Of course, the fact that Andrew still hadn’t let go of his hand may have had something to do with that. 

“Right, so anyone opposed to Ichirou having a deadly accident?” Aaron asked.

“Nope” “No” “I’m good” came the string of replies.

“Awesome. So now we just need a plan that will take out every single Moriyama in attendance, without harming any of the other guests!” Katelyn was trying to match Neil’s cheer, it seemed.

“And how are we supposed to do that?” Andrew’s voice was dry, but Aaron thought he could hear a small thread of something else filtering through his words.

“What if they all just suddenly drop ill. That would be convenient,” Neil sighed.

“How are they supposed to just drop ill? Who would believe that there was no foul play anyway? Plus the wedding is  _ tomorrow.  _ It’s not like we have months to poison them or anything,” Aaron responded scornfully. Neil sat up and stared at him, then at Andrew. 

“Wait. What happens if someone who is not built for magic takes in too much of it?” 

“They get sick. And if they have any pre-existing health conditions, it can be quite fatal,” Katelyn responded pimly, but there was a smug smirk pulling at the edge of her lips.

Aaron looked between them. “Okay but how do we know that the Moriyamas can’t handle magic?”

It was Andrew who answered this time. “Easy, no outsiders can handle magic. That’s how we always know when the people coming into town are outsiders. They have to channel magic through other means. They never hold the magic in their bodies the way we do. Neil would also get sick if we started shoving him full of magic.” Andrew raised their joined hands.

“Right. So if we were to, for instance, fill the wine, or the cake with magic…” Katelyn started.

“Bye bye Moriyama regime!” Neil chirped. Aaron looked between them. 

“Alright then, where do we start?” 

  
  


It took three weeks before Ichirou finally passed on. During which time, Andrew, Aaron, and Katelyn were able to piece together a spell that could track down the rest of the magic that Riko had been gathering and storing throughout the country. It took mere days for the magic to return completely once the containers had been breached.

“Magic doesn’t like to be contained,” Andrew said sagely. Aaron had shoved his face into his pie as a thank you for his wisdom.

After Queen Tilda’s second husband’s unfortunate end at the hands of the magic that had suddenly returned, it was announced that her health had taken a turn for the worst, and all day to day business would be overseen by Prince Aaron. Aaron had offered to share the load with Andrew, but he refused, coming to the conclusion that he would much rather wander around and see the world as a free man. Aaron had been fairly understanding, having spent several days in Andrew’s shoes. Neil was less happy with this decision. 

“Okay but what if you just- came back to Baltimore with me? I mean, I can’t stay here anyway because the lack of Moriyamas means I have to actually rule my own country, but it’s not so bad there!” Andrew just stared at him. He was a bit torn, not that he would ever let Neil know that. 

“Plus, even with the - you know - ruling. As a king, I end up travelling an awful lot. And royalty get better food and lodgings than a simple traveller might...”

“I hate you,” Andrew told him, but he knew Neil could see how much that was not actually the case. Neil had always been strangely adept at reading him after all.

Neil just grinned and took his offered hand, “Yeah, I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, I am so sorry Madison. You should all really thank her. It was, as I told her two hours ago, a dumpster fire.


End file.
